The Ultimate Parent Guide to Youtube Brought to You by Contents
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The Ultimate Parent Guide to YouTube brought to you by Contents Introduction .............................................................................................. 3 YouTube: A Crash Course .................................................................... 4 Getting Started .................................................................................................................................4 Navigating the YouTube Dashboard...................................................................................5 General Safety Tips ............................................................................... 6 The Dangers of the Comments Section ......................................... 7 Keeping an Eye on What Kids Post on YouTube ..................................8 Setting Up YouTube for Kids Under 13 ............................................ 9 YouTube Kids .....................................................................................................................................10 Setting Up Multiple Accounts .................................................................................................13 Teens & YouTube ................................................................................... 14 Using Restricted Mode ................................................................................................................14 Monitoring YouTube with Bark .........................................................15 What Bark Does .............................................................................................................................15 The Ultimate Parent Guide to YouTube 2 Introduction YouTube is the second-most popular website in the including TV, Netflix, and movies. It’s the go-to world, with over 400 hours of content uploaded place for videos for nearly everyone in the world every minute. On average, teens spend more time — and for this reason, there is the potential for watching YouTube than any other video platform, exposure to risky or inappropriate content for kids. In this ebook, we’re going to walk you through the basics of getting YouTube up and running for your child. Keep in mind, YouTube’s Terms of Service explicitly state that regular YouTube service is not for kids under 13. At Bark, we recommend that On average, teens spend children under 13 only use the YouTube Kids app. more time watching But remember, there’s no fool-proof way to keep your kids from viewing potentially problematic YouTube than any other videos, even on YouTube Kids. video platform — including You may also choose to restrict YouTube in TV, Netflix, and movies. its entirety, which may be the right option for your family. Even with restriction, however, it’s important to maintain clear, open, and honest communications with your child. They may run into situations with friends or at school where YouTube is not restricted or is being used openly. General things to remember: • If a user is signed out of their account, YouTube will automatically block all content that requires age verification. • Kids can access YouTube in several different ways, including browsers, the app itself, smart TVs, Kindles, and iPads. • Kids can also create a fake profile that states they’re older, allowing them to watch YouTube with no restrictions. • A YouTube proxy is a tool that hides a user’s IP address, allowing them to bypass internet censorship and watch YouTube videos, including those that are blocked in their region. Kids may also use virtual private networks (VPNs) for the same reason. The Ultimate Parent Guide to YouTube 3 YouTube: A Crash Course You’re probably familiar with the YouTube platform. It’s easy to search and find videos to share with friends and across social media. But it’s surprisingly dense and filled with an overwhelming amount of content. Getting to know the basics will help you as you learn how to protect your child while they use YouTube. Keep in mind: YouTube is NOT just videos Getting Started — it’s social media, chat, music, and more. Here’s the complete list of YouTube products: Signing in How you use YouTube depends on whether you (or your child) are signed in. If you’re on a computer, look at the top right of your YouTube YouTube TV YouTube Gaming screen. You’ll see your name or username if you’re signed in, and if not, you’ll see the sign-in prompt. If you’re new to YouTube or haven’t signed in, the homepage will display the most popular YouTube Music Creators Academy videos and highlights from general categories like music, sports, and gaming. Once you’ve signed in, however, the navigation bar at the top of every YouTube page will be personalized and allow you to easily find the YouTube Kids YouTube Premium content you care about. The Ultimate Parent Guide to YouTube 4 Navigating the YouTube Dashboard Guide The left-hand toolbar on the home screen is the Guide. Open the Guide to get quick access to Trending, Subscriptions, History, Videos you’ve saved to watch later, YouTube Premium, YouTube movies (if applicable), and account settings. Home Home highlights videos recommended from your subscriptions and watch history. Trending Trending lets you discover videos that are popular on YouTube right now. You can scroll through all of the videos or Subscriptions select a specific category (such as music, news, or gaming) to see videos exclusive to that subject. Subscriptions allows you to view recent LIBRARY uploads from your subscriptions, which are the channels you can choose to follow, like “Katy Perry” or “NFL.” History History is where you can see everything that’s been watched in this account. Here, you’ll also be able to see search history, comments left, community activity, and Watch later live chats. Purchases takes you to a page with your paid channel subscriptions, movie Liked videos purchases or rentals, and tickets. The Ultimate Parent Guide to YouTube 5 General Safety Tips Inappropriate Privacy Harassment and Moderating content guidelines cyberbullying channel comments If you see a video that If you feel that your If your teen is being There are tools available you feel is inappropriate child’s privacy has harassed by someone on YouTube that allow or that may violate the been violated (such on YouTube, direct them your child to remove YouTube Community as unauthorized use to block the user. This comments posted Guidelines, flag the of images or personal will help prevent further on their channel or video. This is the information without communication. If it moderate them before fastest way to bring consent), please visit persists, please review they appear. potentially inappropriate YouTube’s Privacy the harassment article content to YouTube’s Guidelines, where you within the YouTube attention. YouTube can learn more about Safety Center for policy specialists review the privacy policy and harassment prevention flagged videos 24 hours how to file a privacy information. If you would a day, 7 days a week. complaint. like to report harassment in videos, channels/ profiles, or comments, you may do so via the reporting tool. 6 The Dangers of the Comments Section Abuse YouTube is notorious for its toxic comments, and it has recently Kids with their own channels established new guidelines to curb some of the problematic may become targets of abuse, issues that arise. Nevertheless, you’ll still find many abusive harassment, or cyberbullying. postings from those hiding under the anonymity of screen Abuse also includes doxxing, names. Here are three primary ways that the comments section which is revealing someone’s can be dangerous for your child. personal information, including personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers and addresses. Comments as conversations Comments sections can become de facto chat rooms, creating potentially dangerous places for children to spend time. There have been documented cases of online predators grooming children through relationships sparked in the comments of videos. Toxic content No matter what a video is about, comments can pop up featuring racist, sexist, homophobic, and other types of toxic content. It’s harmful when kids see these types of content on public videos, but it’s even more so when these types of comments are left on videos they created themselves. The Ultimate Parent Guide to YouTube 7 Keeping an Eye on What Kids Post on YouTube You probably want to give your kids some creative freedom to post videos on YouTube. Additionally, letting them express themselves there can be a fun and positive way to nurture their imaginations or future career interests. But it’s still important to learn what kind of videos they’re posting. Are they making videos with overly personal things you don’t want them saying or showing? Are they posting something with slightly mature content? Take a look at what your teen is posting on their channel — regularly. Check out their favorites and YouTube channel subscriptions. Favorites and subscriptions can give you clues about what they are watching on the site. The Ultimate Parent Guide to YouTube 8 Setting Up YouTube for Kids Under 13 There’s no way to guarantee that inappropriate content will not pop up, so we recommend that parents always supervise their children on YouTube. The best way to do this is to set up a Google Account for your child. Creating a Google Account for your child It takes about 15 minutes to create your child’s Google Account. For managing kids under 13, Google has an app called Family Link that helps parents to set it up on both Android and